Session 0: Character Creation

[Enoch]

Welcome to boot camp, Marine! This thread will be used for character creation. Feel free to toss out character ideas in this thread. Once we have an idea what our group will look like, we'll walk through the specific steps of building a character together.

[Marullus]

Psycho: My name's Francis Sawyer... but everyone calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis... I'll kill ya.
Leon: Ooooooh.
Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff... I'll kill ya. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you homos touch me... I'll kill ya.
Sergeant Hulka: Lighten up, Francis. We're all in this together. One of these men may save your life one of these days, you understand that?
Winger: Then again maybe one of us won't.
- Stripes

Proposal: Call-signs.
Using nicknames instead of names is a long tradition. But trying to give yourself one is really lame.

An important part of it is that you don't get to pick your own; your squad picks one for you, based on some anecdote or story in your bonding process. I'd like to propose that after we set out the characters, that we do a final step where everyone else votes to pick the call-sign for each character. Thoughts?

[Marullus]

Feel free to toss out character ideas in this thread.

How much detail do you want us to throw out?

Name: Elizabeth Resen
Gender: Female
Background: Military

Blond hair, blue eyes, and a petite frame. Standing only 5'3", this young woman possesses an intense no-nonsense demeanor. She is slender, a gymnast build with wiry muscle, few curves, and small chest. Her hair is pulled back with a florescent pink scrunchee, a slight sheen of lip gloss on her lips.

Background:
Daughter of General Resen, Elizabeth spent her entire life moving from base to base, growing up a 'military brat' among the Colonial Marines. She has gone to great lengths to separate herself from her legacy and prove she can do it on her own. She is no stranger to false assumptions, working to overcome stereotypes of gender, size, and privledge by proving herself as a soldier by merit.

Proposed MOS: Logistics

[Enoch]

Just basic ideas at first--I want everyone to get a chance to participate before anything gets set in stone.

[Stirling]

http://www.olddaysofyore.com/ebay/maggot3.JPG



Shaven headed, raw and bitter, former Sgt and now, penal regiment trooper; Vayne Tiberius Maggott stands ready reporting for duty. Looking for both military redemption and 'fates worth than death'. Despite his uncouth and loudmouth manner he is in fact deeply religious in personal devotion to the 'gods' and also the 'duty' to the men under his care. Men in authority over him are another thing altogether.

[MonkeyWrench]

Garrett Vale

Raised in poor conditions, family full of criminals and drug addicts, when he came of age he joined the military and never looked back. Stands around 6' 2" with a broad form, is adept at hand to hand combat but really liked major artillery and heavy weapons and explosives. Has a sarcastic attitude but knows when to take orders, first instinct in any fire fight is "blow them up" whether that be by massive gun rounds or lots of explosives, he isn't picky.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Of the two specialties I am interested in, I am currently playing characters with similar skills in two other PBP RPGs right now. I suppose it would be different enough to play a sci-fi medic, particularly if he isn't a fantasy cleric...

So maybe a manipulative medic who got in trouble for selling some of his pain killers in the past...


edit: Or a technician. I still like that possibility. So if someone else wants to be a medic, I'll go for the technician role.

[Marullus]

That's pretty cool, Rusty T. The medic recovers conditions and the stereotype is some overly-empathetic person. A crochety corpsman with a fistful of stims and pills sounds neat. If you don't want to go medic and nobody else does, we can figure it out. We need to make tests with the skill - can we do so effectively without the MOS or equipment loadout?

[Antman9]

I'm running a bit ragged this week. I'm going to try and work on my character and read through all the material over the next few days.

Sorry

[Enoch]

Not a problem--we'll get started when everyone is ready and available.

[Rusty Tincanne]

A crochety corpsman with a fistful of stims and pills sounds neat.

Alright then. With that bit of encouragement, biofoam and plastiseal, here I come. But don't go wasting my good work by reinjuring yourselves. You might not get treated a second time.

@ Enoch: WIth No Country for Deadbeats on hiatus, I am fully ready for character creation.

[Antman9]

I'm thinking about a Colonial or Orbtal (leaning toward Orbital), 23 years old, who grew up on an out of the way small world with his father (Mother died back on Earth when he was very young). His father taught him to be a field engineer, fixing, restoring, and maintaining machinery and vehicles. They had to be self-sufficient as there were few supplies or contact with the more populated worlds and abundant resources. Really good with his hands. If there's a way to fix something he will figure it out. He's quiet, a loner by choice but social by need, can't stand talkers, has this weird obsession with meditation and finding an inner peace. He won't talk about it though, just insists he's resting. Maybe some alien species killed his father--some kind of gruesome attack, either his father was eaten whole, or turned into something else, nasty brutal affair either way--and now he has a this desire for vengeance eating a hole inside of him. Wants to kill every alien he crosses. His obsession with meditation is his way of controlling the inner demons so they don't get out of control and send him on a self destructive path. He doesn't remember his mother, doesn't have any pictures either, so all women are like a mother to him, that's how he treats them anyway. Sometimes when the aliens come he goes into an uncontrollable rage he can't control.

Colonial
You moved to to live and work on a distant off world colony as a terraformer, engineer, miner or some other
position.
Traits: Brave, early-riser
Wises: Job-wise (terraforming-wise, mining-wise, farming-wise), vehicle-wise

Orbital
Most of your time was spent living and working in a space colony in Sol or a nearby star system, most
likely as a researcher, engineer or computer network technician.
Traits: Adventurous, calm
Wises: Low gravity-wise, life support-wise or some other space habitat-focused technical skill

I'm of course willing to modify, adjust, or otherwise tone down/expand on this description as needed for the party.

[StephenTarheel]

The character that I'm thinking about is a scout sniper who joined the marines to get out of the city gutters. As much as alien jungles may reek of jungle stuff, at least they're not the smell of rotting civilization.

[Enoch]

All right, it looks like pretty much everybody is ready to go (Stephen has confirmed privately). We'll walk through character creation one step at a time and build our characters as a group. Please note that the CM supplement is pretty much a beta product and there are still open questions about how various parts work. Wherever possible I'll get an answer from the creators, but where it's not (or not worth it) I'll make a judgement call.

Case in point: the supplement says that, with a party of four, one character will be a Corporal with the Infantry Team Leader MOS, two will be PFCs with an MOS of their choosing, and one will be a rank Private with the Rifleman MOS. However, it doesn't say what to do with a larger group, and there are some advantages and disadvantages to starting at lower rank. Given that you all will be from more than one fireteam (a 4-man group similar to described), I don't mind messing around with the ranks. I don't want 6 Corporals, but if you have an MOS in mind it's all right to start as a PFC.

Step 1: MOS

Military Occupational Specialty: If you have a particular MOS in mind, state it now. Each MOS grants you rank 2 in an associated skill if you don't have it, or +1 rank if you do. It also dictates the equipment you'll be issued by Command.

Aerospace Crew: Pilot
Com Tech: Technician
Combat Trainer: Instructor
Corpsman: Medic
Infantry Unit Leader: Leader (NOTE: if you want this MOS, you will start as a Corporal. If more than one wants it, we'll discuss how to handle that.)
Light Armored Vehicle Crew: Operator
Logistics: Admin
Scout-Sniper: Scout
Smartgun Operator (SgO): Armorer
Weapons Crew: Gunner

If you want to start as a Private, state that as well. You will not select an MOS, but will have the opportunity when you are promoted to take the Survivalist benefit and remain in the Rifleman MOS. This will give you a +1 bonus to the roll to set up Camp. I'm also toying with the idea of giving the Private a starting point of Fate, to make it more appealing.

Characters

Based on what I've seen in this thread and in other discussions, here is what I understand for potential characters. Please correct me if I've misunderstood, or if you want to start as a Private.

• Marullus: Logistics. PFC.
• MonkeyWrench: Massive guns and explosives would probably fall under the Weapons Crew MOS, as Gunner is generally going to be the go-to skill for heavy weaponry. Note however that the Rifleman loadout (most MOS's do not have specialized loadouts) does not include a heavy weapon. You'll need to either be using a vehicular weapon or get a heavy weapon assigned for a mission, which won't happen every time. PFC.
• Rusty: Corpsman. PFC.
• AntMan9: looks like you're looking for a mechanic-type. There are a number of skills, depending on what you're trying to fix. Armorer is used for weapons and building barricades. Gunner can be used to maintain heavy weaponry, but that would still probably be a more natural fit for Armorer. Technician is used for electronics and the like. I would suggest either Smartgun Operator (SgO) if you want a general grease monkey (you also get the squad heavy weapon) or Com Tech for repairing electronics, if you want an MOS. PFC.
• Stephen: Scout-Sniper, obviously. PFC.

Note that your MOS only determines starting skills--it provides no additional benefit after character creation beyond determining what Command thinks you need in terms of equipment. Any character can open and advance any skill, regardless of MOS.

[Marullus]

There are not clear lines for all MOS to designate equipment.
Rifleman, Sniper skills are common to all; can we pick between these loadouts?
Smartgunner, Com-Tech, Corpsman, Squad Leader are MOS specific.

We might go with the "every Marine a rifleman" idea, and all other MOS get rifleman, with only the Sniper MOS getting the sniper kit. Or, we could allow choice between the two, since all marines are skilled for both. (I ask because I would lean towards a sniper loadout over rifleman for the Logistician.)

AntMan9: looks like you're looking for a mechanic-type. There are a number of skills, depending on what you're trying to fix. Armorer is used for weapons and building barricades. Gunner can be used to maintain heavy weaponry, but that would still probably be a more natural fit for Armorer. Technician is used for electronics and the like. I would suggest either Smartgun Operator (SgO) if you want a general grease monkey (you also get the squad heavy weapon) or Com Tech for repairing electronics, if you want an MOS. PFC.

Could we also say that Operator includes vehicle maintenance/repair? Light Vehicle Crew would be a good fit, then. It is the only skill/MOS that mentions vehicles instead of weapons. (Use and maintain weapons is Gunner, Repair weapons is Armorer; letting vehicles/equipment both be under Operator would create more differentiation.) That said, being Smartgunner MOS with Armorer skill is also tres cool.

[Enoch]

No, if your MOS doesn't have an MOS-specific loadout, you use the general Rifleman loadout. MOS's with specific loadouts are: Infantry Unit Leader, Scout-Sniper, Corpsman, Com Tech, and Smartgun Operator (SgO). Other MOS's use the Rifleman loadout. From a story perspective, sniper equipment is expensive and only given to designated marksmen. In addition, the pulse rifle is useful in a wide variety of situations. From a game perspective, allowing people to choose another MOS's loadout reduces the uniqueness of that MOS.

I have no problem with assuming that Operator would include vehicle repair; from all reports I've heard (I've never served in the military) the bulk of a cavalry soldier's time is spent repairing and maintaining his vehicle. That said, Torchbearer is pretty specific how tests work: you describe what you're doing, and the GM calls for a test if he feels one is appropriate, and what the relevant skill is and what the obstacle will be.

[MonkeyWrench]

I'm fine with going Weapons Crew MoS and requesting heavy weapons and explosives for every mission.

maybe the higher ups will just say "fine, keep this" eh? Ehh?

Turrets and other types of stationary and vehicle mounted guns are fine, he doesn't descriminate. same goes for Rifles, no problem using one if he can't get a LMG for a mission.

[Enoch]

The LMG in this game is the smartgun, and is generally allocated to the SgO--but if you all get your hands on a smartgun and don't have a smartgunner, it's up for grabs.

It's unlikely that they'll tell you to just hang onto it (unless they intend to send you regularly into missions requiring heavy weapons!) but in war, things happen...

My general approach is to be a fan of the players. If you design a character built around heavy weapons, I will make an effort to make sure you have the opportunity to use them. Generally, your characters will face a mix of situations you are uniquely well-suited for and ones that are outside your comfort zone.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Rusty: Corpsman. PFC.

Sounds perfect. However, if we need to have a private, I suppose I could just try and use character generation to get the appropriate skills. I'm happy to be flexible.

[Enoch]

I don't intend to force anyone to take the Private role--if everyone wants a PFC or Corporal, we can do that. The way starting rank is designed, the higher ranks are objectively better than the lower ones (additional skill ranks). What the lower ranks provide is choice--starting rank comes with those advancement decisions already made. If you want to start as a PFC with the Medic MOS, by all means feel free to do so. I do plan on offering at least one Fate (and possibly a Persona if necessary) to make the Private rank more attractive. Without that, the only reason to start as Private is if you want the Survivalist benefit.